Gulf Air is on course to build on the positive results of the last few months in the areas of On-Time Performance (OTP), new holiday schedules and a number of product and service improvements, Ibrahim Al-Hamer, the airline`s President and Chief Executive said today.

Unveiling a programme of new measures to senior management and staff, Mr Al-Hamer highlighted a number of recent successes, which demonstrated that management efforts to rationalise costs and improve services have started to work through, he said.

Mr Al-Hamer also thanked Bahrain Civil Aviation Affairs and Bahrain Airport Services (BAS) for their co-operation, which had resulted in a much stronger overall performance.

“Recent developments at Bahrain International Airport have had a positive impact on our own results in recent months. This could not have been achieved without the commitment of Civil Aviation Affairs and Bahrain Airport Services to provide both high standards of service and an infrastructure worthy of Bahrain`s strategic location in the Gulf, and as an international hub in its own right,” he said.

On-Time Performance is at an all-time high, with 90 percent of Gulf Air flights now leaving within 15 minutes, he said. Denied boarding resulting from overbooking is down by 70 percent and well below industry norms, and after a period of declining passenger yields, this trend has been reversed and load factors are starting to improve.

In response to customer demand as the holiday season gets under way, Gulf Air has increased the frequency of flights, as well as introduced new services: weekly services from Bahrain and Abu Dhabi to Beirut, Cairo and Casablanca have, in some cases, been doubled. Mashad in Iran has been added as a new destination, and will be served twice weekly from Bahrain, and flights to Amman, Damascus and Shiraz will be increased during the peak summer months.

“Feedback from our consumers on what they want to see from their airline has been invaluable,” Mr Al-Hamer said. “We have listened to their suggestions and acted on them, by improving our products and service offers, and by putting on more flights to favourite summer holiday destinations.”

Safety and training remain the two cornerstones of Gulf Air, Mr Al-Hamer said.

“We have developed a new pilot selection programme which includes the psychological assessment of all new joiners on non-technical abilities. Gulf Air is the first airline in the region to introduce this programme, which we are running in association with the DLR Aviation and Space Psychology Department in Germany.”

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